French Open - Other Players

Del Potro has announced his recovery from his hip injury (a small muscle tear) and will be playing at Roland Garros - "It's a lot of effort, but we're getting there. See you in Paris," he said on Twitter.

Meanwhile Andy Roddick is a doubtful participant, having pulled out of the Nice Open with a shoulder injury he picked up in Rome.

Kim Clijsters has also declared her intention to play despite still recovering from injury, saying "I will be able to take part as long as I have some very tight strapping on my ankle".

The tournament directors have published the lists of the 32 seeds in the men's and women's draws, which are based on the ATP and WTA rankings as of 16 May. Rafael Nadal and Caroline Wozniacki will therefore be the top seeds, while Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, no.33 in the world, is the lucky player who squeezes in as no.32 seed due to the withdrawal of David Nalbandian. The French have a sizeable contingent of seeds, namely Gaël Monfils (no.9), Richard Gasquet (no.14), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (no.18), Gilles Simon (no.19) and Michaël Llodra (no.23) in the men's draw and Marion Bartoli (no.11) in the women's. Due to the withdrawal of both Williams sisters, Klara Zakopalova from Czech Republic and Tsvetana Pironkova from Bulgaria have also made it onto the list of 32.

The draw for the men's and women's singles will take place on Friday at 11.30 am in the FFT's tennis museum on-site at Roland Garros and will be carried out by defending champions Nadal and Francesca Schiavone.

I would imagine Kim is just after some match practice, her main objective is Wimbledon. I would love to see her win it, so let's hope she can come through RG unscathed. Clay and Roddick do not get along and they never will. It won't take a lot for him to withdraw from this one, as again he is a player who is more interested in Wimbledon and the hard court stretch in the summer.

Might have been interesting if Nole had been #1. I wonder if they would have respected the rankings then give how Nadal has dominated RG?

Good news that Japan's young rising star and Brad Gilbert's current protege Kei Nishikori has fully recovered from his recent kidney infection and will be playing, although Elena Baltacha is facing a race to be fit after pulling out of the Strasbourg International with a back injury.

In the Metro today, Andrew Castle is saying Andy might be the only man that can halt Noles run. It also says that Nole had to change his diet to gluten free because of stomach problems, wonder if that's got anything to do with him having more energy now?